Anthropology Majors Thrive in Diverse Fields After Graduation

Published: May 13, 2015

Author: Daniel Sehlhorst and Carrie Gates

Gabriel A. Torres

Conducting research in marine biology. Pursuing a graduate degree in global health. Promoting education in order to fight poverty in Uganda.

Anthropology majors in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters undertake a rigorous curriculum that gets them ready for myriad opportunities after graduation—whether they enter the workforce immediately, enroll in graduate school, or choose an elite public service program.

“Anthropology at Notre Dame prepares students to tackle an array of issues concerning human diversity,” said Gabriel A. Torres, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Anthropology. “Students learn to contextualize the human experience through evolutionary time and across the world.”

Students are encouraged to conduct fieldwork, which Torres said offers rigorous training in a host of areas—including research design, data collection, analysis, writing, and public presentations.

“Such projects allow students to gain marketable skills that can applied to many different settings,” he said.

According to the First Destination Report from Notre Dame’s Career Center, 26 percent of the anthropology majors in the Class of 2013 chose to enter the workforce immediately. Among their first positions were:

“Post-graduation service participation is more than an experience and a good deed, it is preparation for a life-long project of learning, doing, and making a difference,” said Agustín Fuentes, professor and chair of the department. “This is the motto that so many of our Anthropology majors take to heart.

“We endeavor to prepare our majors intellectually and practically to deal with a wide range of societal issues and concerns. By going out into the world of service, even if briefly, they gain additional practical and experiential insight that translates into substantive benefits—whether they come back into the academy and scholarly research, join the work force, or seek alternative venues for contributing to community, society, and beyond.”